Our Generation
by Robrafgon
Summary: The story of two new mutants emerging into the world of the X-Men. What does their new life entail and can they just let go of the old one? Pre AvX
1. Chapter 1

_This is the beginning of a brand new X-men tale following two Ocs, but that in will envolve the entire X-cast. I do sincerely hope you enjoy._

Off the coast of California

She stared into the black, her eyes open, but her face pressed down into her pillow.

"Hope."

The voice was an unwelcome intrusion into her solitary existence, so she simply ignored it and continued her bleak observance of the pillow case.

"Hope!"

Again the voice called out and again the girl ignored in hope that it would leave of its own accord.

"Are you crying?"

With that accusation Hope rose from her bed in a sudden blur, copying Gabriel's time manipulating abilities to cross the room and slam the door in his face. She returned to her bed, but didn't lie down again. She brushed a strand of red hair back from her face and behind her ear. She didn't want to be crying, but the strain of living in a world that could come crashing down around her if she failed to live up to the expectations of the surviving mutant race as their messiah had simply caught up to her. Especially after the death of the most recent light. She hadn't been fast enough to save him, hadn't been good enough. And then the way she'd driven Kenji into an insane mission to kill her. It was all too much.

Hope knew what her father would say at a moment like this. That she couldn't save everyone and that crying was no way to stop anything. He wouldn't have let her cry.

"Hope, come out of there." Gabriel called through her door.

Hope didn't want to talk to him particularly. In the field she kept as civil as possible with him, but after his betrayal of her trust and feelings with Pixie, Hope did not want him to see her crying, or try to comfort her.

She needed to clear her head. Donning a green hoodie, Hope opened her room's window and clammered out. She braced herself against the cool, ocean breeze. It was stormy on Utopia, the X-Men's island home and not many of its residents were outdoors.

Hope meandered down a pathway through the central courtyard of the island. She glanced in through one of the windows of the cafeteria and saw Surge, Loa, and Transonic eating lunch. She considered going in to talk to Laurie, but before her feet could make up their mind, Gabriel zoomed into the room. Probably to inform his teammate that their fearless leader was losing it. So instead of stepping out of the wind, her feet kept moving, picking up speed as she went, until she was running down the path towards the cliffs to stare out at the ocean.

Boise, Idaho

Rob Gonzalez was running.

Again.

He ran in the mornings, he ran in the evenings, on tracks, on trails. It was really irrelevant to him. Just so he could run and put his troubles behind him.

Today's run carried him up into the foothills on a series of well traversed trails and away from the dreary college packing awaiting him at home for Freshman year. At 6' 3", his long legs carried him up the slopes rapidly. He'd give a friendly nod or slight wave to anyone he passed, but never slowed down as he moved higher and higher into the mountains.

Running from his troubles and his cares, all left down in the valley, but not today. Today, unbeknownst to the runner, he was running directly towards trouble. More trouble than he could imagine.

Alberta, Canada, just outside of Calgary

Koko Lockleare was running as well, but in no way was it an enjoyable relief from life. After her father had decided to move her and her mother off of the Blackfoot reservation to the city, life had taken a turn for the decidedly worse for Koko. The new high school was terrible and she was sad to have to spend her last year there before college. She was having trouble adjusting. No one liked a smart native. Especially one too smart to realize it. And now here she was, running away.

"Come out, you stupid squaw!"

Koko pulled back into the shadows of the alley, hoping they would leave her alone, but her luck had been bad until this point with no inclination of changing.

Boise, Idaho

Rob took step after step, stride after stride, closing towards the top of the hill. A chunk of ground had been swept away with rainfall and had left a small ledge in the path. Rob saw this and gave a slight jump to get onto it, but that jump didn't end as expected.

Rob flexed his foot and released just enough energy to get back onto the path, but instead he soared into the air high above the trail. Ten feet, twenty feet, until he fell gravity pull him back towards the ground. Right towards one of the boulders lining the edge of the path.

He hit the rock with a resounding crack, expecting pain and blood, but instead the rock shattered beneath his body as he hit it. Lying stunned at what had occurred, Rob was slow to rise. He propped himself up on his elbows and tried to push himself to his feet, but again he was launched forwards. This time off the edge of the hill and straight down into the ravine below.

Alberta, Canada

Koko turned a corner, sprinting towards an alley she hoped would connect to a main thoroughfare where she would be safe. She picked up her speed and whirled around another corner just to have the wind knocked out of her and reality come crashing down.

It was one of the boys from her new school. The thug punched her in the stomach again and she doubled over in pain. He grabbed her by her hair and yanked her to her feet as the rest of his gang arrived to laugh and join in the beating.

Koko gritted her teeth and spat out blood. She wasn't going out without a fight. Reaching into her pocket, she felt the pocket knife she'd been carrying since she'd moved schools. As one of the boys moved in to kick her again she snapped the blade out and sliced his calf.

"Augh-OW! You BITCH!"

He grasped his leg in one hand and her face with the other. Koko bit down into his hand.

"AGH! Why you-"

His cry was cut off by another louder more dire cry. Koko felt the grip on her hair loosen and she was able to look over her shoulder. The first boy she'd run into stood there with a shocked expression.

And a glowing green spike protruding from his back.

Koko's eyes followed the ghostly pale thing impaling him. She traced it out his chest and directly to her.

It wavered like it was unable to hold itself together. Blood dripped down it slowly.

Koko sat stunned.

Boise, Idaho

Rob looked around at what he landed on. It was a house. He'd crashed through the roof. He looked around at the destroyed wreckage of the room. He felt wet blood on his arm and hand, but when he moved his arm he felt no pain.

Rob ran his other hand along his forearm and wiped away the blood, but there was no cut.

Where had the blood come from?

He looked down and saw.

There was a body underneath him. The man's chest had been punctured by his arm.

"No." his voice came out in a whisper.

A gurgling gasp for air drew his eyes back to the room. A women was pinned under some rubble. A splintering piece of wood had pierced her stomach.

"NO!" he shouted.

He lunged backwards away form the accidental carnage and flew backwards through a wall, collapsing the house's last support. He skidded through the lawn outside raising dirt around him like a comet touching down on Earth as the house collapsed.

Rob heard neighbors coming. Screaming in panic.

A man ran towards him shouting if he was all right.

"No. No. Get away! I don't want to hurt you!" He cried meekly.

The man stretched a hand towards Rob. Rob tried to grab his hand and push it away. His fingers closed around the wrist and he felt bones break. The unfortunate aid-giver crumpled with a pained cry. Another bystander ran over to see what the commotion was.

Rob backhanded him across the chest trying to get him away. The man flew nearly thirty feet before he landed.

He did not move.

Rob stumbled to his feet and tried to run. He began picking up speed. Faster and faster. He was cascading down the hill it had taken him nearly and hour to climb. Each on of his steps taking him tens of feet with each stride.

He ran. As fast as he could. Passed his home. Passed the edge of the city. Through fields and mountains. Running North away from what had happened.

Alberta, Canada

"What the hell!?"

Koko whirled round towards one of the other attackers.

"I didn't mean to!"

As she turned her head another ghostly apparition, this one like a long chain, manifested and slammed into her antagonists throwing them against the wall.

She got to her feet in shocked quiet.

Almost comatose she stumbled out of the alley and onto the main road she'd been trying to escape to.

Shouts of panic at her bloodstained, beaten appearance did nothing to draw her attention.

Sliding one foot forward after the next, she shuffled into the street amidst the cars.

A honking horn drew her back to reality. Koko threw up her arm in a fruitless attempt to stop the oncoming bus.

But it wasn't fruitless. A long thin blade of the ethereal, green energy formed about seven feet high and ten feet long. It slid through the bus, cutting it as if it were made out of paper. The two halves screeched on the pavement and into more cars. Screams and fire exploded around her. Koko didn't know what to do. Each movement she made and each reaction she had caused more and more of the green spikes, and bars, and waves, and more and more destruction.

Copeland, Idaho near the I95

Rob had been running for nearly a day, but he couldn't stop.

He tried to stay away from civilization, but several farms had been in his path. No one else had died, but several homes were destroyed.

The smell of exhaust drew him back from his reverie. His next step took him up and over a hill, hurtling into the air. Directly towards the crowded highway.

His descent landed him right into the engine block of a gas tanker. The cab flipped and the tank exploded, engulfing him in flames.

Rob shrugged off the cab and the tattered remains of his shirt burned away, but his skin was simply tarred by soot, not burned. Crashes resounded as more cars piled up.

He started to run again. Heading North.

Utopia, island home of the X-Men

"Hope!"

Hope heard Laurie's voice, but didn't turn.

She didn't hear, but could feel Transonic fly towards her.

"Did Gabriel, send you to check on me?" she asked.

"What? No, Hope what are you talking about?"

"Because I'm fine."

"No, Hope that's not it!"

"Good, because, well-"

"HOPE!"

Hope turned to look at the blue skinned girl.

"What?"

"Cerebra! It just registered two new signatures!"

_Remember everyone that reviews are the best thing for a writer to see, so make my day :)_


	2. Chapter 2

"Where are they both now?"

"The first light to activate is closing in on Calgery in Canada where the second light is."

"And the Cuckoos are sure?"

"Yes, Hope!"

Hope ran towards the main buildings on Utopia, hurrying to get to Cerebra. Transonic flew besides her, filling the young messiah in on the details of the two new mutants.

Hope turned over her shoulder towards the blue girl to ask, "How bad is it?"

Transonic bit her lip.

"That bad, huh?"

"Yeah."

The two girls entered the chamber for Cerebra where the Stepford Cuckoos were plugged in observing the two new mutants. Velocidad, Primal, Shaw, and Pixie were already there. They all turned as their leader entered. Primal trotted over to Hope.

"Hey, Teon." She greeted. Turning back towards the psychics. "What's the situation?"

"The boy, he is in shock-"

"-He's accidentally killed four and injured nine."

"The girl-"

"-has killed one and-"

"-wounded twenty-five. She is scared."

The Cuckoos' habit of finishing each others sentences always gave Hope the creeps.

"Their powers?" she asked.

"Too soon to tell, but-"

"-destructive to say the least."

Hope frowned. Both mutants were almost on top of each other. And both were causing chaos. She worried that this turn out to be another Kenji situation, but the Cuckoos glimpses into their minds did fill her with a little confidence that the two were just scared.

"Pixie, how soon can you teleport us to Canada?"

"Ready when you are boss!" replied the eternally cheery, pink-haired girl.

Cyclops the leader of the X-Men walked in, his eyes hidden behind his ruby shades.

"Hope, what are you doing?"

"Oh, Scott, I-" Hope's reply was cut short as Pixie shouted, "_Sihal Noverum Chinoth!_" and the team disappeared in a flash.

Cyclops massaged his temples.

"This is going to be a long day. Another long day."

Calgary, Canada

Rob had more control over his momentum now and each step was no longer a insane leap, but a barely controlled stride. He was running faster than he had ever, each step taking him farther and farther away from home, until... he tripped.

He rolled and tumbled and bounced, trying to get back to his feet, but his efforts were to no avail. They just sent him up into the air to crash back down. Every move he made perpetuated his movement. He hit the corner of an office building, breaking apart the concrete, but he finally stopped moving.

Rob sat, held in place by the broken concrete and rebar. His shirt was history and his running shoes were in tatters around his feet. They'd been completely worn through on his journey. Miraculously his running shorts still retained some integral strength. They were Spartan in covering him originally, but know served no more purpose than to protect his modesty.

He looked around at his surroundings. He was no longer in the States, but Canada. He recognized this place. It was Calgary. He'd been skiing here before.

Fire and smoke caught his eye, but it wasn't his trail of destruction. It was two or three blocks away. Cars were piling up, people were screaming. He could see it, he could hear it.

How?

The question puzzled Rob. He usually wore glasses and the sounds he was hearing were too far away for him to normally hear, yet he could hear it as though they were right next to him. He could make out details that he hadn't been able to make out in years. He could see the flames flicker, he could see the girl in the middle of the street collapsed on her knees, he could see the ethereal green energy around her, he could see the car headed right for her.

Koko felt the tears and blood wash down her face. She glanced up at a car, it's breaks screaming as it careened towards her. She felt the green energy rising up, readying to skewer the vehicle and its driver. There was nothing she could do. The man driving was going to die. Koko's only hope was that she would die too.

Rob tensed himself in the building. He would only have one chance at this. He coiled his legs and arms against the building, aiming himself. He pushed off.

It was as if everything was in slow motion. Rob's mind was hyperprocessing data. He launched forward and the corner of the building he was on exploded into millions of concrete pieces. He soared towards the girl and the car. Out of the corner of his eye he caught sight of a bright flash of light and... people? Colorfully clad people.

Hope's team stepped out of the portal Pixie had conjured just in time to see a man pinned in the debris of a building hurtle through the air towards the girl with the green energy spikes destroying the street below.

Koko saw the flash of light as the car was almost on top of her. The tendrils around her prepared to strike, but the most in probable of things happened. A boy, man, somewhere in between. Skidded to a halt in front of her, the asphalt breaking around his feet. The barely clad boy smiled at her as he turned.

The tendrils reared up as the boy put his hands on the oncoming bumper and braced himself. He lifted the front of the car of the ground halting its movement forward as the tendrils struck. Koko screamed for him to watch out, but it was too late. The blades rushed towards his unprotected back and... shattered against his skin without even a mark. He set the car down and turned towards her. More blades and spikes sprang from her, but none did a thing to her.

Hope sprinted towards the two trying to reach them and prevent more destruction. The insane energy pouring out the girl was slicing walls and light posts as it cascaded around the boy. Hope copied the girl's power and formed a large, green shield to defend herself with. A sledgehammer of energy swung towards her. She blocked it with the shield and dug her heals into the ground with the boy's power. Gritting her teeth she stepped towards the two, her hands stretched out.

Hope's fingers barely grazed the two when fiery red light exploded out and then... nothing. The two new mutants stood dazed in front of her. The green energy was gone. Koko stared around at the destruction. Rob lifted one of his hands. He could still feel the raw power running through him, but it no longer scared him. It was his to control. He looked at the girl in front of him. She stared back.

Koko looked at him as blackness crowded the edge of her vision. She slipped into unconsciousness.

Rob caught her and lifter her as if she weighed nothing. The red head standing next to them smiled. Whatever she had done it worked.

Hope smiled at them. "Teon, help him."

Primal ran over to help Rob with Koko. He nodded him off.

"It's alright, I've got her."

Rob turned towards Hope.

"Who are you?" he asked.

"I'm Hope. We're the X-Men."

"So... we're mutants."

"Yeah."

"Figured it was something like that."

Rob slowly sank to his knees as unconsciousness took him too.

Shaw put a hand on his shoulder.

"It's alright lad, I've got you."

Rob's eyes shut as Pixie shouted her teleportation spell and the world vanished.


End file.
